Evangelism 101 - Love the Lost
Notes
Transcript
Missions Moment - Anna and Serge Update
Missions Moment - Anna and Serge Update
As we walked through our neighborhood yesterday, we felt like we were home. We passed by a building and waved at the caretaker and he joyfully waved back. We entered our local grocery store and Anna saw the butcher and asked him about his health and where he's been lately (all in Arabic). In the produce section we saw a local shop owner that we've gotten to know. Anna (in typical Lebanese fashion) asked her what she was making for dinner that night and we shared our dinner plans. As we checked out we made conversation with the cashier who is actually the cousin of one of our church members, he’s attended our Bible study a few times but is still searching. We headed out of the grocery store and back to our apartment. Our home.
This Sunday we celebrated one year in Lebanon - our "Leba-versary" as one of the pastor’s kids called it.
As we reflect on this year, we are grateful to God that we feel at home in here. But more than that, we are grateful that he has made a place for us within the church.
We worshipped with our church on Sunday and it was such a joy to see so many people that we knew and loved. A year ago, we didn't know any of them - now they are our close friends and family.
We reflect back on all that God has done this year. It went so fast! And so much has happened. Yet as we think about this, we realize that it's not because of us. For one, it is always God's doing. But also, it is a result of our church. We came into an existing, healthy church. That was our plan in coming to Lebanon. And we've seen the fruit of it.
Through the church, we've built relationships with believers and unbelievers. Through the church, we've grown in our faith. Through the church, we've ministered to dozens of people in our home. Through the church, we've seen the lost get saved. Through the church, we've read the Bible with new believers. Through the church, we've been able to serve and share the Gospel.
We praise God for the church - his church. It is by his design that we are saved individually and placed into a family of believers. And it is his plan to use his church to reach the world.
We are so grateful for each of you that have been praying for us this past year and continue to pray and support us so that we can be here. We thank God for our first year in Lebanon and look forward to the years that God has in store for us here.
3. Love the Lost
3. Love the Lost
Sometimes truth is easier to see when it is set in a science fiction or fantasy setting. This has certainly been true in my own life. There is a book, that has also been turned into a movie with Harrison Ford, called “Ender’s Game.” In this book, humanity is in a war against a deadly threat from another planet. This threat nearly wiped humans from existence once and we were not about to let them succeed on, or even have!, a second attempt. So humans sent space fleets to go target the alien homeworld and wipe them out before they wipe us out. The problem was that these creatures were so alien that we had trouble understanding their tactics, their motivation, or even their way of communication. So on the journey they studied and tried to learn who their enemy really was, so that they could destroy them. One young man, really a boy, named Ender, was the one who was chosen to figure out how to destroy their enemy. And he did. He figured out who the enemy was and what their motivation was, he figured out their battle tactics and how to defeat them. And when he finally defeated the enemy, when he wiped out the alien threat by truly knowing his enemy, he didn’t celebrate.
He wept.
Because in the process of coming to know his enemy he found something unexpected. In the book he says this:
“In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him. I think it’s impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them.”
It is impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them.
We have been studying evangelism the past couple of weeks and we have gotten a couple of points on what we should be doing before we share our faith.
Understand the Gospel
Understand the context you are about to engage in
This morning we will be on
3. Love the lost
Exposition
Exposition
That quote from Ender’s Game has always stuck with me: “It is impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them.”
Because one of the great Christian teachings is to love God and to love people: from our friends and family, to our neighbors, to even our enemies.
But don’t take my word for it:
Love God and
Love your neighbor (Mark 12:28-31)
28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Love your friends (John 15:13)
13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
Love fellow disciples (John 13:35
35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Love your enemies (Matthew 5:43-47)
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
Why do we not share the Gospel? Is it primarily because of the presence of fear? Or is it because of an absence of love?
According to the Word of God, a lack of evangelism is because of a lack of love for anyone other than ourselves.
First, we lack love for God
We say we love God, but are we really following the Greatest Commandment to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength? Because if we really did love Jesus that much then we would keep his commandments. We would go out and make disciples by proclaiming the same good news that Jesus told us to proclaim.
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
Second, we lack love for others
If you love someone enough, you will overcome your fear and share the good news of Christ with them. If you don’t, you won’t. It really is that simple.
18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us.
What does love look like?
Befriending lost people
Jesus was accused of being a friend of sinners (Luke 7:34)
34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’
Seeking out lost people Luke 19:10
10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Being considerate of others and polite in your interactions - you can be correct in your analysis of the world and still be wrong in how you engage with people
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
Caring for lost people
7 But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. 8 So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.
36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
2 Ditches in evangelism
Ignoring Friendship in Evangelism - treating people as projects - rushing the clock
Never leaving the friendship part to get to the evangelism part - idolizing relational comfort - assuming the clock will tick forever
So, Who’s Your One?
Choose your one
Serve your one
Start the Conversation
Ask questions!
How can I pray for you?
What were you taught about God growing up?
Did you grow up in church?
do you still believe that?
What do you think the solution to (recent news event) is?
And why would we make our answer political here and miss a gospel opportunity???????
Salvation by the God-Man Jesus is the solution!
Redemption to God is the solution!
If you need more questions to ask, then come ask me. Or read some good books, like Tactics by Greg Koukl or Questioning Evangelism or Before you share your faith or the little red evangelism book in the back.
I’m seriously considering having a training/study that is simply about how we are to have conversations as Christians. Do you think that would be helpful?
Now, this week do these things.
1. Keep praying daily for a greater love for and understanding of the gospel
2. Keep praying daily for your ONE
3. Let them know you care about them by reaching out to them
4. Start a Gospel conversation with your One.
To wrap it all up,
Failing to make an effort to proclaim the good news of Jesus to others shows that you love your own comfort more than you love other people. It shows that you love your own comfort more than you love Jesus, and that is sinful.
Failing to love someone when telling them the Gospel will put immense hurdles in their path.
Our love should be driving us forward. It should be driving out fear. It should be forcing the gospel out of our lips.
I want to leave you with a quote from an atheist illusionist after he was given a bible from a Christian.
Penn Jillette
“I’ve always said that I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. I don’t respect that at all. If you believe that there’s a heaven and a hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life, and you think that it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward… how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?
“I mean, if I believed, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that a truck was coming at you, and you didn’t believe that truck was bearing down on you, there is a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that.”
Think of someone in your life that you love enough to share the hope that is found only in Jesus Christ, start praying for them, start seeking out ways to serve them, and start a conversation with them.
Pray
Time of Confession
This is the time to respond to the Word of God by confessing the ways that you have not honored Jesus by ignoring his commandments. This is the time to refocus your heart on Christ, recognizing where you have loved yourself more than Him this week and to confess and repent of your sinful rebellion. This is also the time to plead with the Holy Spirit to continue illuminating sin in your life and enabling you to put it to death. So take a moment now to confess and repent to the Lord. You can pray at your seat, you can pray with your family members, you can pray up here at the front. But pray, confess your sin and turn away from it and toward Christ.
Father, we confess that we have often chosen to love ourselves more than loving You and obeying Your Word. We have chosen comfort over obedience. We have chosen our own pleasures and the building of our own names over glorifying you. We have chosen to hate our neighbors by keeping our mouths shut in fear of the discomfort we will feel if we actually did the labor we have been called to do.
Lord, for some of us, we have felt pride over others because of our greater apparent faithfulness than them. We have found others to be lesser than us. We have set ourselves higher than we should be in our own eyes.
Father, please forgive us according to Your steadfast, immovable love.
Jesus, please continue to intercede for us, remembering us in your Kingdom.
Spirit, grant us repentance and help us to choose righteousness over our sin.
God, keep us united in You.
It’s in the name of Jesus that we confess our sins and repent of them this morning.
Scriptural assurance of Pardon
Scriptural assurance of Pardon
5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Brothers and sisters, if you truly have confessed your sin and repented of it, turned away from it and toward Christ, then by the authority of God’s Word, I tell you that your sins are forgiven! Praise the Lord!
Now, we’re going to sing a song in response, but let’s start doing something different. Come forward with the name card of your one, pray over them and plead with the Lord to save them. Then when you are finished praying, put their name in the basket up here and next week we’re going to do it again. But let’s be praying as a church for the salvation of our family, friends, neighbors, and enemies.